


Of Juice Boxes and Swan Songs

by LethanWolf



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canon Setting, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy, Ichiruki, Light Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sad, Series of One Shots, Sex, alternative endings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LethanWolf/pseuds/LethanWolf
Summary: She came in the evenings.Not often enough for him to detect a pattern. Sometimes she’d come a few times a year, other times she’d wait a whole year before she showed again.Her visits always brought a radiant amount of sunshine and joy to his ever increasingly dull life.✧☾.·:·.·:·.☽✧A series of 'how it should have ended' IchiRuki one shots based in the canon universe (and occasionally AU.)Everything from angst endings to fluffy and happy endings will be covered. Open to ideas and prompts.
Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 33
Kudos: 30
Collections: Ichiruki week, The Seireitei Server August Writing Challenge 2020





	1. Forlorn Footprints

**Author's Note:**

  * For [withered](https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/gifts).



> I'd like to give a MASSIVE thank you to Withered, who has gifted me 2 sensational fan fictions that I honestly don't deserve. An IchiRuki writing GOD, thank you so much for inspiring me and making me fall in love with this pairing. 
> 
> And also a big thank you to Vero, Ceru, Ari, Berry and Wag who helped me come up with the name of this series of one shots in our discord server. And thank you for introducing me to IchiRuki concepts I never knew existed <3 You're all amazing people, and I appreciate every single one of you. <3
> 
> This is my entry into The Seireitei Discord Server's August Writing Challenge

Prompt: Escape Through the Snow (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Theme Song)  
Ships: IchiRuki only  
Themes: Several years later, angst, sads  
For Work?: NSFW!!!!

✧☾.·:·.·:·.☽✧

  
**Forlorn FootPrints**

  
✧☾.·:·.·:·.☽✧

She came in the evenings.

Not often enough for him to detect a pattern. Sometimes she’d come a few times a year, other times she’d wait a whole year before she showed again.

Her visits always brought a radiant amount of sunshine and joy to his ever increasingly dull life.

They’d not defined anything, preferring to just breathe and be.

Ichigo Kurosaki was 22 now, and was studying in an advanced course of Immunology at the University of Tokyo. His apartment was a tiny studio above a shop, a 45 minute train ride outside the bustle of the city. He preferred the town to the city, not only were the prices for accommodation much more affordable on his student wage, but there was a small family run clinic around the corner where he worked part time, that reminded him of home.

Since moving into the apartment to be closer to his studies, Ichigo had seen Rukia less. He’d been asked out by a number of the girls on campus and had been assured, multiple times in fact, that he was an incredibly attractive looking man… when he chose to smile. He didn’t need to smile for Rukia. He didn’t need to be anything other than one hundred percent himself. She required nothing from him, expected nothing from him. She simply showed up and they picked up from exactly where they’d left off.

Ichigo tried not to overthink. He tried to cast all possible thoughts that could ruin what _they_ were, to the back of his mind. It was with that thought that he closed the drawer to his desk, safely tucking away the studying he’d assigned himself for that evening and glanced out the window. The darkening skies outside showed no traces of stars, as the cloud cover hid their scintillating light from view. Ichigo rose from his desk and stretched, cracking a satisfying cramp out his lower back. He absentmindedly walked over to the window, undid the latch and slid it open. The hard wood of the windowsill pressed against his folding arms as he leaned out to glance up and down the street. The lampposts cast sullen glows onto the empty pavements below and the only thing he could hear, was a distant shrill of sirens.

When their noise faded, the night seemed to lapse back into a silence so profound, he’d be as well staring at a picture. 

With a sigh, Ichigo left the window open, an invitation. He’d come to develop this habit every evening, and most evenings he’d be left disappointed. To starve off the feeling of forlorn, he stripped naked and made his way toward his bathroom for a shower. The open window would cool his room down quite significantly, perhaps unpleasantly so, but he’d come to find the cold didn’t bother him nearly as much as it once had.

Feeling significantly more human after he was clean, Ichigo wrapped the towel around his waist, letting the moisture from his hair dew on eagerly bent strands and fall onto his skin. Ichigo stuck his toothbrush in his mouth and began to clean his teeth, wiping the condensation off the mirror and gazing back at the dejected eyes in his bathroom mirror.

He brushed his teeth with haste, unwilling to stare at his wretched reflection for too long and opened the door to his bedroom. The space was still eerily empty and he let the cold air from his open window wash over him. It sent a shiver down his still wet body and he gritted his teeth against the frigid air, moving to his bed where he’d left a pair of sweat pants and a clean pair of boxers.

There was nothing to announce her arrival, but the delicate swish of fabric from his curtains. The sound so elusive, it still suited the picturesque evening of the silent streets outside.

But Ichigo _felt_ her.

In the same way that he adored the cold air on his wet skin, she brought something akin to this every time she re-entered his life.

Her boldness had not been replaced. Before Ichigo could straighten his back and turn around to face her, he felt her lips press against his wet back, at a spot high enough for her to reach. The cold lips made him shudder, but there was warmth in the arms that wrapped around his torso from behind. And Ichigo breathed, letting go of a metaphorical breath he felt he’d been holding since the last time she’d come to see him.

‘You’ve grown again,’ her voice was like a physical pain. Nostalgia so sharp it cut deep and he had to take a moment to collect himself before replying, for fear his voice would crack.

‘I’ve missed you.’

It was how he always started their interactions, every single time she came to visit him. Hearing her and feeling her weren’t enough, so Ichigo squirmed out of her hold and turned to look at her.

He’d had too many dreams now to know which were real and which weren’t. Ichigo was always sure he heard her voice in his sleep, felt her arm snake across his chest, nails digging softly into his skin in a bid to wake him and yet each time he awoke, it was always to aching disappointment. Her iridescent eyes flickered up to his, the subtle hues of violet and byzantine shimmering in the lamp light from his desk. Her pale features were unmarred by colour, thick black of her lashes fluttering against her cheeks and her thin eyebrows rising a little in question.

Time did not pass for her the way it did for him. They’d had this discussion plenty of times before and he didn’t want to change the delicious notes of reunion in the air by voicing the same argument they’d already had.

To Rukia, a year was nothing more than a couple of weeks, which could flit by in the blink of an eye, but as Ichigo watched her, the way her gaze seemed to rack his body and the subtle frown that shifted at the corner of her mouth, he hoped the message was starting to land.

Ichigo would continue to age, each year they were apart, and if they didn’t wish to lose the precious years he had of being similar to her in appearance, they had to make the most of their time.

‘It’s been ten months,’ was his honesty reply.

‘I know,’ her brows furrowed and he saw a flicker of sadness cross her features. As quickly as it had come, it was replaced by the smooth mask of the soldier. Ichigo internalised a sigh, opting instead to reach out and tug her against him. Rukia went willingly, pliant to his strength by choice, for she could easily twist away if she wished. Her arms wrapped around him once more and heat coiled under his skin at her proximity. He slipped a finger under her chin, tilting it up so he could meet her lips.

They kissed for an age. Ichigo savouring the peppermint fresh taste of her lips as if he was starved of oxygen and she was breathing it back into his lungs. In turn, Rukia toyed with him, as she always did, her mouth sucking his lower lip into hers to abuse, her nails raking over the soft flesh of his back and her other hand toying with the knot in his towel.

He’d not had time to change into his boxers and sweats before she’d arrived, thankfully he’d at least been covered by the towel prior to their engagement or they might not have exchanged any words at all. Rukia was first, and foremost, a soldier. Her job was precious to her, and though Ichigo could tell she cared deeply for him, when she let her walls down, he knew that he’d always be second. He’d resigned himself to that fact and accepted it. The pain was worth the fleeting glimpses into a life that could have been. The ache deep in his heart satiated for a few days each time she came to visit.

Rukia’s nimble fingers undid the knot in the damp fabric and Ichigo let it fall away to the floor. His body already responding to their kiss and how close and eager she was. Ichigo groaned as one of her dainty hands wrapped around his length, stroking it to full hardness, her thumb swiping over the head and catching the precum in a way that made his toes curl with expectation. He hadn’t even realised he was being backed up toward the bed, until his knees hit it and he fell onto it with a soft thump of the covers.

Gazing up at her through half lidded eyes, Ichigo tried to take a mental picture to add to the collection of faded ones. Rukia’s skin, in the soft lamp lighting, was illuminated further by the snowy glow filtering in from the windows. It made her dark raven hair look as black as the midnight sky and her pale skin seemed to shimmer with the power of her element.

She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful thing Ichigo had ever seen in his life.

All the diamonds in the world couldn’t compare to Rukia Kuchiki.

Ichigo swallowed back the wave of raw emotion he could feel constricting his throat as Rukia slid to her knees between his legs. She raised a small hand up and pushed her hair sexily to the side, tilting her head that way too as she opened her mouth and wrapped it around him. Ichigo hissed and shuddered. Much like her lips, her mouth had that same beautiful contradiction. It felt incredibly cold, as if she had just been eating snow before engulfing him. It wasn’t strange to assum where this feeling came from, her zanpakuto was just like her in every way, beautiful and cold.

Rukia sunk down, taking more and more of him into her mouth until he was panting her name out loud into the room and could feel sweat dewing on his skin. She did nothing by half measure. Once committed to a task, she’d always see it through and complete it with the vigour expected of a Lieutenant ranked soul. 

The badge was vacant from her arm today, as it often was when she came to visit. She took on a more human appearances, opting for light dresses that were easy to slide on and off her body. Ichigo fisted his hands in his sheets, his eyes ghosting over the collar bone exposed to him by the pale lilac dress she currently wore.

He’d mark get again tonight, to ensure some part of him left with her.

Her lips moved up and down his shaft, her movement speeding up and slowing down in a pace that was equally as exciting as it was frustrating, bringing him to the edge, then stopping and slowing down until he was brought away again. The teasing felt very reminiscent of how she came and went in his life, bringing him small bursts of joy and quickly diminishing them again, never fully giving him what he wanted.

Ichigo gasped, as her tongue swirled around his head and she swallowed. The cry of orgasm was on the tip of his tongue when she pulled back, letting his swollen member go from her torturous lips. He tried to hold back his groan of frustration but knew she spotted it in his eyes as he glared down at her. Rukia’s eyes were deep purple, unlike any human eyes he’d ever seen, and blinked in mock innocence. The teasing that they’d always dished out between them in words, had extended into action in the bedroom, it was how they’d first fallen into this rhythm when Ichigo had no rebuttal for a particularly harsh comment and choose to kiss her instead.

Now the same woman was crawling over his body so he was forced to lie back on the bed and lowered her lips to find his once more. The kiss was slow as she savoured him, as she continued to take control and as she helped ease him down gently from high.

Without needing to be told, Rukia broke away, turning and opening the drawer beside his bed. She pulled a condom out and put the foil wrapped down on the duvet beside her, before reaching down to grasp at her dress and pull it up over her head.

The garment was tossed onto the floor somewhere beside his towel and Ichigo ignored its location in favour of drinking in the sight. Her body was deeply scarred. But unlike the blemishes on his skin, hers looked like little frosted flakes, glinting in the light and highlighting her beauty and strength. Ichigo let his hands roam up her sides, thumbs mapping out some of the larger flakes before sliding down to rest on the beautiful jutting hips. Rukia straddled him on the bed, leaning back and emitting a sense of power and confidence that he knew took her years to build.

Ichigo sat up and wrapped his arms more fully around her, swooping down to kiss at her neck. If he were left too long without action, he might start using his words and there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t gush his feelings out to her, feelings he knew she didn’t have the time to listen too.

Rukia rocked her hips against him, his length pressed between them and he groaned against her skin, his actions momentarily forgotten in favour of the shudder that shivered down his spine. Rukia’s hands slid up his back, into his hair and pressing him more fully against her neck. Ichigo didn’t need any other hint, he let his teeth sink into her soft flesh, drawing a hiss of pain and pleasure from her lips, a sound that haunted his dreams, and began to suck the skin into his mouth. He attacked it with all the ferocity that Rukia had used on his heart, ravaging the skin over and over until he was sure the mark would be a permanent dark blemish on her pristine porcelain skin. Tiny but strong fingers entangled his orange hair and he felt her yank his head back, the force would have been surprising, if he didn’t know her.

Rukia was stronger than most people gave her credit for. People took one look at her and often judged her abilities and Ichigo had watched as she either manipulated them because of it, or killed them for their insolence.

The strength she demonstrated now drew a hiss from his mouth as it was pulled away from her neck, his gaze esurient as he drank in the view of the red mark he’d painted on her neck. Rukia wasn’t going to be the only one marred from this encounter and he felt her teeth enclose his own throat. Ichigo closed his eyes, and tilted his jaw away from her to give her complete access. He often wondered why she felt the need to mark him so deeply, as if she was unaware of the marks she’d already left all over his heart.

Ichigo was sure that his heart was decimated with his feelings for her. If he thought about it too long the weight of them might crush him, hinder him entirely until he couldn’t perform basic functions without her. Despite this, Ichigo remained still as she worked the canvas of his neck to her image, leaving him with a mark that co-workers would question him over and he’d have to put on a fake smile and assure them, once again, it was a one night thing.

That he wasn’t in a top secret relationship behind everyone’s backs.

God he wished it was.

Ichigo bit his lip to stop the swell of his emotions, pushing them back so they did not impede the encounter he’d waited nearly a year for. Each time it got more challenging to cork his emotions and keep the damn walls from breaking, but each time he managed.

He did so by living and focusing only on the physical moment.

Ichigo did that now, zoning his attention in on the thrum of pain against his neck, where Rukia sucked his skin, biting on the edges and soothing over it with her tongue and lips once she was done. He focused on the press of her body up against his, the way his aching length was caught between them and the feel of the only garments left shielding her from view. Wanting her to be just as exposed as he felt, he raised his hands behind her back and unclipped her bra. Rukia pulled back just enough to pull the fabric out between them and toss it to the side. Ichigo’s eyes met her gaze and he raised his hand to cup her face, stalling her movements for a second as he drunk in those dark purple pools.

So many emotions had to be conveyed through sight alone, for a soldier was not to use her tongue. Unless said tongue was for a physical act, and Ichigo followed it as it swiped at her own bottom lip. The tiny flash of pink flesh he knew could wreck him with its power had him shuddering once again.

‘Lie back,’ her voice was huskier, lower, and sounded as lidded as her eyes looked.

Ichigo did as he was told, giving her full control once more as she straightened up in his lap. Her eyes swept over himand he let his gaze take in the sight of her now exposed chest. It was perfectly sized. Ichigo had never been one to care about size when it came to a woman’s chest. They fit perfectly into the palms of his hands, as he demonstrated now.

Rukia groaned, her eyes closing when he pinched her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, each hand held the perfect amount. She scooted up his body a little further, so she could sit over his length and rub herself against it through her pants. Ichigo bit back a hiss, and focused more heavily on his teasing of her nipples as she began to rock harder, panting before calling his name.

‘Ichigo,’ Rukia groaned, her hands clawing down his chest and her neck flopping back in a submissive way. He spotted the power shift the moment it happened and took full advantage. With very little effort, he flipped them, so that she was lying down into his sheets and he was on top. He caught a nipple in his mouth to diminish any protest and listened to her moan, her hips rocking against air, looking for some kind of friction against the empty sensation she was experiencing.

He wanted to enjoy this, he wanted to draw it out, give her a reason to keep coming back, because no other man could ruin her the way he could. Even if they stopped all this and she found someone else, someone who aged the way she did in the Soul Society he wanted them to never be as good and for her to remember that.

Ichigo let his hands wander lower, dancing over the sensitive flesh of her abdomen that made her squirm in ticklish pleasure before his right hand slipped between her legs and he began to rub. The fabric was damp to the touch, her walls swollen and soft through the thin material, the barrier stopping him feeling all of her as he continued to draw out her pleasure.

‘Ichi-’ Rukia gasped, her back arching as his fingers slid a little higher, pressed a little deeper and feeling the source of her multiple orgasms before. Ichigo caught her clit between two of his fingers, rubbing it and using the fabric of her underwear to heighten the abuse.

She writhed under his touch, making noises that caused his cock to drip onto the bed beside her, but he was much too focused on her to pay any mind to himself. He could touch himself anytime he wanted, but this was a gift he rarely got to experience. Rukia’s eyes were closed, the sweat dewing on her forehead causing a few loose strands of ebony hair to stick to it. She bucked her hips, looking for more friction, wanting something more but not being able to vocalise it. Ichigo committed it to memory, the way she arched and moved, the way the pants fell from her lips, the way she looked in the dim light of the room, the way the florally scent of her shampoo and minty breath broke through the smell of sex.

Ichigo painted the picture in his mind, knowing it would be all he’d have to keep him company once she left.

Rukia started to show signs of impatience and as soon as her eyes fluttered opened, the look in them set, Ichigo changed tactic. The two fingers he’d had abusing her clit slipped down, pushing her underwear to the side as they slid easily inside her. She jerked, her body unprepared for the action and a gasp of longing fell from her lips. Her walls were just as soft and wet as he remembered and sent another shiver of longing down his spine. He remembered what those walls felt like surrounding him as he plunged inside.

Ichigo tried to regulate his breathing, tried to focus his thoughts so that this wouldn’t be over too soon. He wanted her to enjoy this experience, so he leaned back and pulled her underwear down and off her legs. Rukia was unusually obedient as she lay, now fully exposed to him on the bed. Taking the opportunity he slid down between her legs and nudged his face in. The skin of her inner thighs was like a blank canvas waiting to be decorated and Ichigo started by pulling the soft tender flesh into his mouth and dragging a hiss from hers. Each mark he placed on her legs grew larger and bolder the closer he got to her core, he wanted to showcase his ownership to this particular part of her body, to mark his territory and remind Rukia each time she got changed and each time she bathed that she was off limits to anyone else.

It was a deep routed masculine ownership thought to have, but Ichigo couldn’t help himself. As he sucked the flesh into his mouth once more, biting as hard as he could without hurting her, he countered the pain by pushing three fingers back inside her entrance and curling them in a ‘come hither’ motion against the top of her wall.

Her moans were like a beautiful symphony, filling the empty space of his desolate room with passion and desire. Ichigo adjusted his head, until his tongue found the bundle of nerves between her lips and he began to abuse it with just as much care as he had when it was between his fingers. Rukia began to squirm and pant, Ichigo brought his arm around her thigh and hugged it to help hold her in place while his tongue and fingers did their job.

It was clear she wasn’t going to last much longer, when she began to beg his name. Ichigo wished he could prolong it, make it never end, but the human body worked on its own clock and they both had lives at the end of the day.

‘I-Ichigo,’ Rukia groaned, the noise going straight to his cock and making it leak onto the floor this time, ‘P-please.’

Ichigo couldn’t ignore that request. He pulled back, giving her a moment to regain her breathing. With nimble fingers he made quick work of the condom wrapped before he was leaning over her body. At once her arms came around his neck, pulling him down and Ichigo lined himself up with her entrance. He began to push in, feeling the tight wet heat of her engulf him and rejoicing in the way she seemed to sigh with relief.

‘Ichigo,’ she groaned, nuzzling into his neck and making his heart race. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to tell her.

He put them into action instead, pulling out and then pushing back in. His movements were lazy, unhurried and though he knew it bothered her, she didn’t say anything. Instead, Rukia just clung onto him, one of her hands exploring down his back, the other sliding up into his hair where she grasped it but did not pull. Her face remained hidden in his neck, and she didn’t remove it even when he attempted to turn and capture her lips. He left her, not wishing to break the silence that had fallen over them to ask her what she was thinking.

He knew better than to ask her. Rukia was a method actress. He’d seen it from her limited time in the world of living. From the way she’s cried out and kicked his hand away from Byakuya when he lay bleeding to death at the man’s feet before Rukia left back to the soul society. Rukia had a way of protecting the people around her by diminishing her own light and Ichigo knew if he spilled too much of his feelings…

She wouldn’t come back.

Rukia would choose not to come back because she’d believed it would be best for him. Her visits here, were her moments of weakness, when she couldn’t stay away from him any longer, she considered them selfish but indulged herself anyway.

Ichigo did not know this as fact, he’d had to guess much of it from their limited interactions, from the unspoken words or emotions she’d let flicker across her visage.

He knew her soul well enough to know where those thoughts came from.

‘Rukia,’ he gasped nuzzling into the side of her head, trying to draw her thoughts back to the present and away from whatever cryptic messages she was telling herself. It worked. She twisted toward him and their lips met, sloppily and painfully as their teeth clashed.

Rukia let the hold of his neck go, so she could turn and reach his lips better and Ichigo started when he felt a very tender touch of her fingers on his cheek. She rarely touched his face during sex and the unexpected motion of it caused his hips to stutter for a moment and their rhythm to falter.

She collected herself, her fingers sliding down his jaw and around his neck, pulling his head closer to hers so that her tongue could infiltrate his mouth. It was as if she’d noticed her mistake and Ichigo played along, his hips speeding back up.

Ichigo focused his attention on where they were connected, feeling the heat and thrum of pleasure course up and down his spine, making sweat bead and slide with the movement of their entwined bodies.

Rukia’s tongue in his mouth was making him dizzy and they broke apart to gasp at the air. Ichigo swooped down to capture her nipple in his mouth, his hand sliding down between her legs, making the angle for his cock a little awkward, as he reached for her clit. Rukia’s moan of relief made him smile and Ichigo tried to focus more on her clit and less on the rocking of his hips to help bring her closer to the edge of orgasm.

With his thrusts shallowed due to the placement of his hand and fingers, Ichigo focused on drawing his pleasure from hers. He pulled away from her breast in time to watch her face contort and her body to arch up off the bed.

‘Ichigo!’ she gasped, the sound sent a shiver of pleasure down his body. His fingers sped up and he watched as her head pressed back into the bed, her neck exposed to the room and the marks he’d left on her skin beginning to take route. Her chin was locked and only came undone with a sharp gasp and moan.

‘F-fuck Ichigo!’ Rukia moaned into the room, her body stuttering and Ichigo felt her walls clamp around him. He pulled his fingers away from her clit, determined to fuck her through the orgasm but realised too late that he wasn’t going to last much longer. As her orgasm came to its end, he doubled over and emptied inside her, the pleasure snapping like a chord and his vision tunnelled entirely to where he released, making his toes curl once again and his muscles lock in place.

The blissful high lasted a few seconds before they were both crashing down out of it. Ichigo rolled over and pulled out of her, the noise of his exit salacious enough to make him shudder. He stood to disposed of the condom in the nearest bin and turned in time to see Rukia nuzzling down into his sheets. Ichigo turned the lamp off beside his bed, letting the cold wind dry the damp sweat on his skin and making him shiver, but he wasn’t ready to interrupt the sight just yet. Rukia’s body entangled on his bed, the naked swell of her hips where the cover just barely covered her ass, it was possibley the most beautiful thing Ichigo had ever seen in his life.

With a feeling akin to the worst physical pain he’d ever felt, Ichigo made his way back over to the bed, slipping in beside her. Rukia turned her head to gaze at him, her eyes hazy with hormones and sleep as she considered him.

‘That was fun,’ she murmured.

‘Don’t you mean, “thank you for the best sex of my life, Ichigo,”’ he sassed back and Rukia rolled her eyes with patient fondness.

‘That’s what I said,’ she snorted her retort and Ichigo reached out toward her, hesitated and then retracted his hand.

They had a strict no cuddling in bed rule after the act. They’d set that one up to make it easier on themselves when she left.

Rukia had noticed his gesture, however, and watched him with a wary and contemplative gaze. She didn’t seem to know what she was wanted, but no sooner had that thought crossed Ichigo’s mind than she was nuzzling up against his chest. Rukia didn’t just stop there, her entire body curved around him, her arms repositioning his sheets so nothing separated them and then her legs tangled into his. When she settled to lay her head over his chest, Ichigo was worried she’d hear the stuttering in his heart.

He hadn’t expected this much affection from her tonight.

Ichigo wrapped his arm around her, feeling the cool sensation of her back and how it contrasted to the warmth of her chest and abdomen. He did his best to stay awake, wanting to take it all in, to exist fully in the moment, even if it did mean he’d be tired in the morning.

Alas the universe didn’t seem to be on his side, and he drifted to sleep, with Rukia’s sleeping form on his mind.

When he woke, he could tell it was still night, but the early hours of dawn was fast approaching. It took him a while to realise what had awoken him, and he stretched out to feel the emptiness in his sheets. Ichigo started at once, his hand resting on the sheet where some of her warmth remained and using the limited light from outside he cast his eyes across the floor for her clothes.

They were gone.

Ichigo pulled back the covers of his bed, threw his sweats on, not caring at all about his boxers. His window had been closed and that was likely what had woken him. He crashed down the stairs of the apartment block and out into the street below.

‘RUKIA!’ he called her name into the night.

But she was gone.

Ichigo stood, in the delicate snow flurries that the sky had decided to release and realised everything that had happened that night had not been a coincidence. The snow had come because of Rukia, it had fallen because of her emotion. She’d been cuddly and affectionate, after their promises to not get attached. It could all mean only one thing…

The stab of pain ripped through his heart, worse than any blade he’d ever been sliced with.

Rukia wasn’t coming back.

Tonight had been her last visit.

As Ichigo stood, alone in the street, with the powdery snow lying softly against the surfaces, he realised that truth. The distant dawn of the new day glinted fresh possibilities on the horizon, but Ichigo was stood, statue still, just out of its light as waves of emotions threatened to break. He looked at the footprints in the snow, the dainty size and shape could only have belonged to the one soul figure who had come this way.

He could follow her, off into the distance, follow the footsteps instil they’d stopped. Or he could gather whatever shred of dignity he had left and try and move on with his life.

The cold tore through his skin in a way. It had never bothered him before. Ichigo made his choice. He turned, and walked back into the apartment complex, closing the door on the snowy dawn light.


	2. Pet Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being called "Midget" while courting is one thing, being called it in the bedroom? Is another thing entirely...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is my short chapter, prompt by Hesesols for The Seireitei's IchiRuki ship week :D YEY! 
> 
> Enjoy...

The door to the bedroom banged open and the two bodies stumbled inside. Ichigo kicked the door closed with a foot so he could keep his hands locked around her waist. Rukia was kissing the life out of him, her hands in his hair keeping his head bent low so she could reach his lips, her tongue in his mouth and drawing the most delicious sounds from his throat. Unable to help himself, his hands sunk lower, grabbing her tight little ass and hoisting her up into his arms.

He groaned, her cheeks felt incredible as he kneaded them in his palms. Tight muscles built from decades of training left very little to the imagination as they were wrapped in skin tight black leggings.

‘Will your roommate come back?’ Rukia had the cohesion to ask, pulling back from Ichigo’s lips to glance hastily over at the empty bed on the other side of the dorm room.

‘No fucking clue,’ Ichigo was beyond logical thinking at this point, he had just one thing on his mind and it had been something Rukia had been denying him for years. He was here now, at the stupid soul society, attending the academy, surely that was enough?

‘Maybe I should freeze the door just to be safe,’ Rukia grinned, turning to him, her mouth a tease against his own, her breath ghosting his lips in a way that wiped his mind blank.

‘Do what you want,’ Ichigo groaned and he meant it in several ways. Clearly taking that as a win, Rukia kissed him again and Ichigo moulded her down onto his bed, feeling the chill envelop the room. He broke away for a second to glance over his shoulder and see that she had, indeed, frozen the door.

Rukia’s lips were on his neck and Ichigo sighed, his attention being drawn back to her. Feeling safe, Rukia was letting her spiritual pressure leak in the space around them and Ichigo felt his own responding to it, as if it were melting together. With a sigh of longing Ichigo slipped out of her arms to undo the sash of his Academy uniform, pulling the fabric off his shoulders and letting it fall to the ground. He loved the way Rukia’s eyes hungrily took in the sight of his chest and abdomen. Ichigo ducked down and captured her lips again and this time, her hands continued to wander his body, her breath filling his mouth and making him dizzy with desire.

‘What did you want to do then, Midget?’ Ichigo teased.

That comment earned him a harsh bite to the lip and he yelped in pain pulling back away from his girlfriend. Ichigo blinked stupidly, bringing a finger up to his lip as he tasted blood and seeing the red on his thumb as he swiped it across his lip.

‘What was that for?’ he hissed.

Rukia was glaring up at him, the spell that had surrounded them, shattered and the temperature in the room dropped.

‘On what planet,’ Rukia asked, gritting her teeth together and looking angrier than Ichigo had ever seen her, ‘did you think calling someone “Midget” in the bedroom was okay?’

‘It’s what I always call you,’ Ichigo pouted, but it just drew more blood from his bitten lip. Rukia huffed and scooted to the edge of the bed, as if to get off it. ‘Wait, I’m sorry!’

He had his hand on her arm, catching her before she got to her feet, he knew the moment she got up, she’d be gone from his sight.

‘We need to work on your bedroom manner,’ Rukia continued to huff.

‘I’m not good at this,’ Ichigo sighed, ‘I won’t call you “Midget” again, I promise,’ he said. In truth he still didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but he knew that he couldn’t let her leave.

‘You don’t have a clue how to speak to a woman do you?’ she narrowed her eyes and Ichigo frowned under the scrutinizing gaze. Rukia knew him better than anyone else he’d ever met, surely she knew how hopeless his romantic life had been until she’d walked into it and their relationship wasn’t exactly normal.

‘Do you need me to answer that,’ Ichigo knew he was acting like a child, but she had to understand how frustrated he was right now, it wasn’t like she’d made him wait a life time or anything…

‘You need a lesson in pet names,’ Rukia turned to him, but she clearly wasn’t leaving and that was progress.

‘What do you want me to call you?’ Ichigo asked, acting like a good pup on his best behaviour.

_He would get laid tonight._

Rukia shook her head, ‘I don’t care as long as it’s not a name used to degrade someone, how would you feel if I was calling you Idiot during sex?’

Ichigo thought about it. He could see her point.

‘How about “Beautiful” then?’ Ichigo asked.

‘Do you think I am?’ Rukia asked, her eyebrow lifting and Ichigo felt his heart slump in his chest. Had he seriously never told her how breathtakingly stunning she was to him before? Had he seriously never confessed how much he couldn’t stop thinking about her? Looking at the expression on her face, Ichigo had to guess that, no, he’d never told her any of these things.

Ichigo frowned. Maybe neither of them had been very good at communicating their feelings for each other. When it came to their relationship, they just fell into it, as easily as breathing, mostly because she kicked his ass in every sense of the word and Ichigo was more than happy to take it.

But even tough warriors and soon-to-be Captains needed to be told how stunning they were. Ichigo reached out to her and Rukia’s jaw slackened at the sudden affection he was showing. He watched, a little amused, as her eyes went wide and he stroked the side of his fingers down her cheek, to hook under her chin and tilt her head up. Heat was creeping up her face, spilling across her smooth white cheeks, making her look like the beauty of Snow White.

‘You’re easily the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life,’ Ichigo said softly. The heat in her cheeks continued to intensify and Ichigo realised that this was the first time he’d ever seen Rukia lose control of something.

‘Idiot,’ she murmured back and Ichigo laughed. Rukia pulled her chin out of his fingers with a scowl, but the heat was now radiating off her skin and she looked closer to the colour of a red apple than snow.

‘Sorry,’ Ichigo chuckled, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush that hard before,’ he pointed out, which only succeeded in making her blush more. Ichigo revelled in it, marvelled at the colour and the power that he put it on her skin. If this was the private Rukia that remained hidden to the rest of the world and only came out for him, similarly to her hidden smiles and soft kisses, then Ichigo could die happy.

‘Idiot,’ Rukia murmured again.

‘I’m your idiot though,’ Ichigo chuckled leaning over and placing a chaste kiss on her flaming cheek.

That seemed to bring her back, the corner of her lips ticked and her eyes slid over to him, the heat in her cheeks receding. ‘You’re right, you are.’

Ichigo beamed at her and Rukia crawled across the bed and into his arms. He revealed in the feeling of her hands wrapping around his back and her cool fingertips digging into the flesh of his skin. For a long time the two of them just sat holding each other. While Ichigo had been impatient before, he found this atmosphere much more inviting. It was slow, it was private and it was _them._

Rukia curled her way into his side, hiding her face in the crook of his neck as he held her. She’d never gotten this clingy or affectionate with him and he tried his best to commit it to memory.

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she murmured in his ear.

Ichigo’s lip ticked up as he fought the grin on his face, ‘I’m glad I’m here too, even if it did take a literal lifetime to get you into bed with me.’

That comment earned him a harsh jab to the side, a huff and another call of the name “Idiot.”

While he’d now mentally committed to calling her ‘Beautiful’ instead, it seemed his pet name still needed to be worked on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the prompt Hese :D

**Author's Note:**

> A massive thank you for reading! If you have any ideas for prompts then shoot me a kudos and comment! Or come and join our fantastic discord family and chat away with all the souls about Bleach <3 We've set up loads of ship tags, including an IchiRuki one so you can be tagged in other IchiRuki artwork and stories!  
> discord.gg/drgmaf8
> 
> If you want to be kept up to date when the next chapter is going up, follow my trello for updates:  
> https://trello.com/b/3qJpG18x/lethans-fan-fictions
> 
> We also started a Bleach podcast, you can find us by searching 'The Seireitei' or 'Bleach Podcast' on most major platforms (Spotify, Google pod, DoublePod etc)


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